ABOUT

V20 IS HERE. JOIN THE RESISTANCE.

Our Mission

A world in which women live safely and freely, spending their lives creating and thriving rather than surviving or recovering from terrible atrocities.

Our Work Is Grounded In Four Core Beliefs:

Art has the power to transform thinking and inspire people to act.

Lasting social and cultural change is spread by ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Local women best know what their communities need and can become unstoppable leaders.

One must look at the intersection of race, class, and gender to understand violence against women.

Our History

Founded in 2010 by Jennifer Teykaerts, JoLane Blaylock, Chad Sniffen, Maryanne Henke, and Nicola Hil, V-Day Sacramento began as a project of Sacramento Take Back the Night. Since then, V-Day Sacramento has raised nearly $150,000 for local non-profit organizations in the Sacramento area.

ABOUT V-DAY

RISE. RESIST. UNITE.

WHAT IS V–DAY?

V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls. Through V-Day campaigns, local volunteers and college students produce annual benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues and A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence groups within their own communities. Each year, thousands of V-Day benefit events take place produced by volunteer activists in the U.S. and around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls.

To learn more about the V-Day’s global movement, mission and accomplishments, visit VDay.org.

WHAT IS V–DAY SACRAMENTO?

V-Day Sacramento is a local grassroots movement to end violence against all women and girls (cisgender, transgender, and gender non-conforming), bringing attention to the issues of sexual harassment, assault, domestic violence, rape, incest, and sex trafficking.

An entirely volunteer-run organization, V-Day Sacramento is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money, and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations using the power of art and activism. 100% of funds raised go towards our commitment to ending gender-based violence. 90% stays in the Sacramento area to benefit community-based nonprofits that provide critical resources and services to survivors of violence. The remaining 10% is donated to V-Day’s global spotlight; which is focused on a variety of issues affecting women and changes each year.

__2019. Sponsor

SACRAMENTO TAKE BACK THE NIGHT (TBTN)

Sacramento Take Back the Night aims to resist and end sexual, gender-based, and ALL forms of violence through awareness-building, empowering survivors, and supporting organizations that provide services to survivors of violence. Take Back the Night works collaboratively with local organizations and service providers in furthering these efforts, year-round.

Take Back the Night events have been held annually in Sacramento since 1979. The events take place every year on Second Saturday in October and are organized entirely by volunteers, with active participation from many community-based organizations. The Rally features a variety of diverse speakers and performances, and serves as a safe place for survivors of violence to come forward with testimonials. The event offers community resources, activities for children and teens, and encourages men to become actively involved in ending violence.

__2019. Beneficiary

GENDER HEALTH CENTER

The Gender Health Center (GHC) works closely in coalition with local feminist, LGBTQ, & POC groups and organizations to address the intersections of systemic violence by raising awareness of its impacts, and bringing local residents together at community events and actions as active stakeholders in creating more socially just futures for transgender, non-binary, queer and QTPOC. We participate in movements to seek justice for the epidemic murder of trans women of colour, incarcerated trans persons, ending police brutality, safe working conditions for sex workers, accessible to health and mental healthcare for transgender, LGBQ and undocumented persons.

__2019. Beneficiary

SWOP Sacramento

The Sex Workers Outreach Project-Sacramento is a social justice network dedicated to reducing harm, improving healthcare, and upholding both civil and human rights of sex workers and their communities. Our focus is on ending violence and stigma through education and advocacy, while addressing the health and well being of both trafficking victims and those who engage in survival sex.

OUR TEAM

__2019. Producers

Alysha Fonseca

Producer

Alysha has been an active member of V-Day Sacramento since 2015 and is excited about the opportunity to assist the production team for the 2018 season. She has lived in Sacramento since she was a child and considers this her home. She wants to make sure she does her part to help educate, support and spread the love in our community.

Rosa Del Buono

Producer

Rosa has been a valuable part of the V-Day team since 2012, taking on various roles throughout the V-Squad until settling down on the Producer role in 2017. After taking a short break, Rosa is excited to return to the team and help make V-Day 2019 a success.

Cha'Quitta Hutchison

Producer

Cha’Quitta, also known as CQ, has been a vibrant member of V-Day Sacramento since 2015, making her directorial debut with the 2017 production of The Vagina Monologues. She hopes to drive forward the mission of her predecessors by raising the level of awareness they set forth and promoting intersectional feminism. CQ is excited to introduce a new production and looks forward to helping V-Day Sacramento continue to grow and leave a lasting impact on the community.

Keyko Torres

Director

A San Diego native that has called Sacramento home for the past ten years, Keyko first joined a Vagina Monologues production 7 years ago in 2010. Since then, she has performed in productions for Sac State, V-Day Sacramento, and UC Davis Medical School. She also directed Sac State’s production in 2014, and volunteered with V-Day Sacramento’s production team. She is excited to direct this year and continue this Sacramento feminist tradition. If her Vagina could talk? It would probably become a lead singer of a queer-core punk band.

Lauren Wolf

J.J. Jones

Director of Video Production

J.J. has been involved with V-Day Sacramento since 2014, taking on various roles in addition to being part of the cast. She remains a loyal advocate for human rights and will continue pursuing the movement, while opening minds and hearts to the truth and power of activism. J.J. is delighted to be directing the cast and will continue encouraging survivors to rise up to eliminate violence against women and girls.

Calla Jane

Director

Calla has been an exuberant and active member of V-Day since 2012. She had always been a fan of the movement but never had the opportunity to participate until her first year of college in Ashland, Oregon. After that, she was unstoppable. She participated in Sacramento’s production of The Vagina Monologues in 2016 and the first ever production of A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and A Prayer in 2018. Calla is an activist, a professional feminist killjoy, and an advocate for change within the Sacramento community. She is so excited to be co-directing this year, and hopes to live in a world free from violence and oppression. If her vagina could talk, it would say, “ask first!”

Syd Scanlon

Director

Syd first became a Vagina Warrior when her mom took her to see V-Day Sacramento’s production of TVM in 2016. In 2017, she was thrilled to be a member of TVM’s cast and has only become more passionate as the years have passed. 2018 was the first year that Syd stepped into the director’s ring, and had the amazing honor to co-direct MMRP, a brand new show debuting for the first time in Sacramento. Syd is also an advocate at WEAVE, and women’s rights, activism, and community are her bread and butter. She is thrilled to be back for the 2019 season, again co-directing MMRP, and wants to make this show bigger and more powerful than ever before! When asked why she resists, Syd’s answer is, “for girl power!”

EVE ENSLER

AUTHOR. PLAYWRIGHT. ACTIVIST.

Eve Ensler, Tony Award winning playwright, performer, and activist, is the author of The Vagina Monologues, translated into over 48 languages, performed in over 140 countries, including sold-out runs at both Off-Broadway’s Westside Theater and on London’s West End. The play ran for over 10 years in the U.K., Mexico and France.

Ensler released Insecure at Last, a political memoir, in 2006 and co-edited A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer, an anthology of writings about violence against women, published in 2007. In 2010, I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World was released by Random House and made The New York Times Bestseller list.

Eve’s other plays include The Treatment, Necessary Targets, Ladies, Lemonade, Extraordinary Measures, Mango, and Here which was filmed live by Sky Television in London, UK in the summer of 2010.

Ensler’s experience performing The Vagina Monologues inspired her to create V-Day, a global activist movement to stop violence against women and girls. She has devoted her life to stopping violence, envisioning a planet in which women and girls will be free to thrive, rather than merely survive.

Today, V-Day raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of Ensler’s award-winning play, The Vagina Monologues, and other artistic works. To date, the V-Day movement has raised over $100 million; educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it; crafted international educational, media, and PSA campaigns; reopened shelters; and funded over 13,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Indian Country, and Iraq.

In 2012, Eve initiated ONE BILLION RISING which has run now for five years and is the largest mass action campaign against violence against women and girls. Annually, activists rise in 200 countries through dance and creative expression.

V-Day has received numerous acknowledgements and awards and is one of the top-rated organizations on both Charity Navigator and Guidestar.

LATEST POSTS

By Syd Scanlon October 18th, 2017 I’ve been involved in the V-Day Community for just about 2 years now. This year, however, was the first that I had the opportunity to attend Sacramento’s annual Women Take Back the Night March on October 14th. The Resource Fair...